John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
The IsnerMahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships is notable as the longest tennis match in history. It was a first-round Men's singles match, in which the American 23rd seed John Isner played against French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. The match began at 6:13 pm (British Summer Time, or 17:13 UTC) on Tuesday, 22 June 2010, on Court 18 at Wimbledon. At 9:07 pm, due to the fading daylight, play was suspended before the start of the fifth set. After resuming on Wednesday, 23 June, at 2:05 pm, the record for longest match was broken at 5:45 pm. Play continued until the final set was tied at 59 games all, at which point the daylight faded again, and so play was suspended once more at 9:09 pm. Play resumed again at 3:40 pm on Thursday, 24 June, and eventually Isner won the match at 4:47 pm, the final set having lasted for 8 hours, 11 minutes.
In total, the match took 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days, with a final score of 64, 36, 67(79), 76(73), 7068 for a total of 183 games. It remains, by far, the longest match in tennis history, measured both by time duration and also by number of games. The final set alone was longer than the previous record for longest match.
Both players broke numerous Wimbledon and tennis records, including each serving over 100 aces, with the match being referred to as "the endless match."A rule change was instituted for the 2019 Championships, introducing a tie break where scores in the fifth set (or third set for women's matches) reach 12-12. A further rule change during 2022 is trialing a 10-point tie break in the final set of all Grand Slam matches, meaning that under current rules, the IsnerMahut match will likely remain the longest match in tennis history.
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).Considered one of the best servers ever to play on the ATP Tour, Isner achieved his career-high singles ranking in July 2018 by virtue of his maiden Masters 1000 crown at the 2018 Miami Open and a semifinal appearance at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships. He has also twice reached the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2011 and 2018, the latter of which helped qualify him for an ATP Finals appearance later that year. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, he played the longest professional tennis match in history, defeating Nicolas Mahut in a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes, played over the course of three days. Isner holds the record for hitting the ATP's fastest "official" serve ever and third-fastest on record in tennis at 157.2 mph or 253 km/h during his first-round 2016 Davis Cup match. He currently has the second-most aces in the history of the ATP Tour, having served over 13,000 aces.